Successful applicant will be responsible for leading a three year change journey, including the move to Microsoft from Google Integrated Corporate Services and joining the government Matrix shared services programme
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has launched a recruitment campaign to find its next chief technology officer and is offering a salary starting at £81,000 for the successful applicant.
DCMS said the new CTO would be tasked with leading the transition to a new operating model at the department that will strengthen governance, improve service resilience and enable multidisciplinary teams to collaborate effectively.
In particular, DCMS said the new CTO would play a key leadership role in the strategic departmental move to Microsoft from Google Integrated Corporate Services, as well as joining the cross-government Matrix shared-services programme.
Matrix is being led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In addition to DCMS, it will also provide back-office software infrastructure for the Attorney General’s Office; the Cabinet Office; the Department for Business and Trade; the Department for Education; the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero; the Department of Health and Social Care; and HM Treasury.
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DCMS’s new CTO will report directly to Khurum Sethi, the department’s chief digital and information officer.
According to the advertisement for the role, essential criteria for candidates includes proven experience of setting direction and delivering technology strategies in complex organanisations with more than 1,000 users and an annual budget in excess of £5m.
The department also requires leaders with a track record of stabilising high-risk live services and embedding best practice and a “customer-centric philosophy” at scale.
Additionally, DCMS lists the ability to set budgets, justify investment in technology and make strategic trade-offs between immediate operational needs and long-term value as further “must haves”.
In the candidate pack for applicants, CDIO Sethi said DCMS’s Digital, Data and Technology Directorate is seeking a “visionary leader” and “strategic thinker” who is ready to challenge, shape, and define how the entire department operates digitally.
“We are investing in our people, growing capability, and maturing our operating model,” he said. “Over the next three years, we will strengthen our technology and data foundations, improve delivery, and reduce complexity across our platforms. This transformation is fundamentally about unlocking the value of our data to better inform policymaking, ensuring we are robustly secure, and building a highly reliable, scalable technology environment that empowers our colleagues and strengthens the department’s corporate centre.”
The CTO can be based in either London or Manchester. As the job is a Senior Civil Service Pay Band 1 role, the starting salary will be £81,000. However, a civil service candidate who is already earning a higher salary within the SCS1 band could expect to keep their existing pay.
The job is open to applications until 11:55pm on February 4.
